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Nintendo Switch game cartridges taste offensively bad (2017)

polygon.com

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Re: Nintendo Switch game cartridges taste offensively bad (2017)

#131

Post by Dig1t »

jmole wrote: post #13
RC_ITR wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's actually amazing how Nintendo's "Focus on 1P titles and make HW that is appealing to the masses" used to be its greatest disadvantage and is now probably the only reason for their existence. Kind of Japan's Apple in some ways (with SEGA unfortunately being Japan's NeXT).

Sony is Japan’s Apple if anyone is. A company like Nintendo doesn’t seem like it has an American equivalent, and I actually can’t imagine a company like that surviving the ups and downs of the 80s/90s/00s tech cycles in the US, especially with our tendency towards M&A.

That comparison aside, I think Nintendo and Apple are very similar in a spiritual sense. They both love vertical integration, they both love to own as much of the software and hardware stack as possible, they both have a perceived emphasis on quality, independence of thought, they don't play nicely with others as much as they can get away with, they both have super loyal, obsessive fanbases, and they have literal mountains of cash because of this attitude within their respective industries. I think Sony is in a similar line of business as Apple but they don't have the same attitude that these two share.

Another company I'd lump in with these 2 would be Disney for the same reasons as above.

Re: Nintendo Switch game cartridges taste offensively bad (2017)

#132

Post by xyzzyz »

wodenokoto wrote: post #121
chrisshroba wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sorry for my ignorance, but could someone give more context on this? I don't understand what "denatured alcohol" is, how it relates to tax avoidance, or what illegal use people are finding for it?

You tax alcohol for consumption but not for cleaning products, like rubbing alcohol. Now you need to figure out a way to stop people from consuming cleaning products.

Rubbing alcohol is often isopropyl alcohol instead of ethanol, which makes it even more toxic.

Re: Nintendo Switch game cartridges taste offensively bad (2017)

#133

Post by RIMR »

I hate how in the matter of like 2 minutes I can be goaded into doing something dumb like licking the cartridge right out of my Switch, only to learn precisely the lesson I could have learned by simply reading the article: That the cartridges taste profoundly offensive.

Re: Nintendo Switch game cartridges taste offensively bad (2017)

#134

Post by vlunkr »

kbelder wrote: post #18
RC_ITR wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's actually amazing how Nintendo's "Focus on 1P titles and make HW that is appealing to the masses" used to be its greatest disadvantage and is now probably the only reason for their existence. Kind of Japan's Apple in some ways (with SEGA unfortunately being Japan's NeXT).

They really are an interesting company. They are slower than Sony/MS, yet more innovative at the same time. They make a fair amount of bone-headed decisions, but I certainly trust them more than I do most other tech companies. Especially back in the PS3/XBox360/Wii days, they seemed like the only thing stopping the VG industry from a nofun dystopian duopoly.

It's interesting that Sony and MS have not even attempted to compete directly with the Switch, despite it being a massive success. They're kind of in their own market right now, which is where they usually succeed (like the Wii). Steam is coming in 5 years late with the Game Gear 2, so I guess we'll see how that goes.

Re: Nintendo Switch game cartridges taste offensively bad (2017)

#135

Post by lilyball »

I cannot taste "bitter" (it's a genetic thing), though bittering agents used in food/drinks do taste very unpleasant to me (I don't know what it is I'm tasting in those or why it's so unpleasant).

I have not tried licking a Switch cartridge.

Does anyone know if Denatonium Benzoate will still taste bad to me, or is the badness entirely contained in the "bitter" that I cannot taste? I could experiment myself but I've resisted the urge to lick the cartridges for 5 years and I'm not particularly fond of the idea of tasting something awful.

Edit: Looking more at this in Wikipedia, it sounds like the genetic inability to taste bitter is specific to the TASR38 receptor, and that Denatonium Benzoate targets a different set of receptors. I am not a subject matter expert here, but it sounds to me like I should be able to still taste it.

Re: Nintendo Switch game cartridges taste offensively bad (2017)

#136

Post by RealityVoid »

323 wrote: post #104
tialaramex wrote: post #53

Yes. In the EU product "denatured alcohol" for most purposes is likewise treated with the same agent. This replaces the widespread use of methanol and similar products which are poisonous (yes even if you call the product "meths" it probably isn't methanol in the EU today). The rationale is that poisoning people is not an appropriate reaction to attempted tax avoidance. Alcohol is only "denatured" because booze is ta…

Drinking this medical disinfectant denaturated alcohol has become a meme in Romania, where very poor people drink it because it's so cheap - $1.5 for 1L of 70% ABV (almost twice Vodka strength which is about 40% ABV). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdZuHPjJtgs&t=1825s

While Mona is a disinfectant, it _is_ ethanol, only the production method differs, it's obtained through industrial processes (or so it was explained to my by someone who worked at some industrial alcohol synthesis factory) as opposed to fermentation and distillation. Drinking methanol will fucking blind or kill you, so... a bad idea overall.

Interestingly a valid treatment for methanol poisoning is ethanol: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methanol_toxicity#Treatment

Re: Nintendo Switch game cartridges taste offensively bad (2017)

#137

Post by ascagnel_ »

KennyBlanken wrote: post #37
TylerE wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't get the Sony:Apple comparison at all. If anything, Sony is Japan's Microsoft: Do a gazillion things, many of them poorly, to such a unfocused extent that some of your divisions actually end up competition with each other. Like in Sony's case, how they've had internal battles for decades between the device side (that wants to make devices that are useful) and the content side (that wants DRM out the ass on eve…

It took them twenty years to give up trying to push Memory Stick, a product that was made irrelevant in barely four years by SD cards.

I pin the failure of the Vita (a system designed around downloadable games with hardware buttons) on the need to use proprietary memory. Yes, Sony made more off of the proprietary memory than off of SD/uSD cards, but handicapped the system and made the downloadable games that should have been its bread and butter an expensive proposition for users.

Re: Nintendo Switch game cartridges taste offensively bad (2017)

#138

Post by morganvachon »

kunai wrote: post #127
lstodd wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My hands, from working with NF/USP Isopropyl alcohol tend to disagree. It desiccates, defats, and generally kills everything in sight.

Of course alcohol is a powerful solvent at any concentration, but there are definitely studies[1] that demonstrate 70% being a bit more effective at disinfecting. [1]: https://www.webmd.com/first-aid/ss/rubbing-alcohol-uses

That's always been the rule of thumb that I learned growing up too. My dad kept 90% or stronger concentrations for cleaning electrical contacts and other industrial uses, and 70% for first aid and sanitizing, because that's what each was made for.

Re: Nintendo Switch game cartridges taste offensively bad (2017)

#139

Post by ascagnel_ »

vlunkr wrote: post #134
kbelder wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They really are an interesting company. They are slower than Sony/MS, yet more innovative at the same time. They make a fair amount of bone-headed decisions, but I certainly trust them more than I do most other tech companies. Especially back in the PS3/XBox360/Wii days, they seemed like the only thing stopping the VG industry from a nofun dystopian duopoly.

It's interesting that Sony and MS have not even attempted to compete directly with the Switch, despite it being a massive success. They're kind of in their own market right now, which is where they usually succeed (like the Wii). Steam is coming in 5 years late with the Game Gear 2, so I guess we'll see how that goes.

I think Microsoft is trying to compete via cloud streaming of games -- saying "you can play Halo on basically any device with an internet connection" is a compelling argument, even if they have a ways to go to make it a compelling experience.

Re: Nintendo Switch game cartridges taste offensively bad (2017)

#140

Post by shmoe »

RealityVoid wrote: post #136
323 wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Drinking this medical disinfectant denaturated alcohol has become a meme in Romania, where very poor people drink it because it's so cheap - $1.5 for 1L of 70% ABV (almost twice Vodka strength which is about 40% ABV). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdZuHPjJtgs&t=1825s

While Mona is a disinfectant, it _is_ ethanol, only the production method differs, it's obtained through industrial processes (or so it was explained to my by someone who worked at some industrial alcohol synthesis factory) as opposed to fermentation and distillation. Drinking methanol will fucking blind or kill you, so... a bad idea overall. Interestingly a valid treatment for methanol poisoning is ethanol: https://…

If I remember it overloads the uptake of the methanol or something along those lines. Crazy stuff.
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